


Addiction

by bluestargirl6 (pressdbtwnpages)



Category: Rent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-01
Updated: 2010-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-08 14:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pressdbtwnpages/pseuds/bluestargirl6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark's secret is out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Addiction

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in my head during the spring of Rent around "Without You", but it could just as easily be post-Rent.

  
Mark has a guilty secret. He's an addict with a carefully concealed stash. He started young, and so by the time he was living with four other people keeping things private wasn't all that difficult.

For one thing, there are some places people just don't want to look. And all the places that seem so private, under the bed, the underwear drawer, they're the first place anyone thinks to look. Funny how no one seems all that curious about the crumpled plastic bag under the kitchen sink that's been crammed behind the bleach. Funny how there's bleach in the loft at all, really.

Mark keeps his secret through all of high school, two years in a tiny dorm with Benny at Brown, through Roger and Collins and Maureen and April the two nosiest people on Earth, through Angel with her good heart and Mimi with her eager curiosity and perceptive Joanne.

He's defeated not by his roommate getting any smarter but by the twenty dollar bill he found on the street and the desire to make his stash stretch just a little bit longer than it usually does.

Mark got complacent and then he got greedy and lazy. And then he got busted.

By Roger, who has spent more time sitting on the couch staring at the loft door than any ten normal people. Roger saw the door open, and he saw his roommate with a bag from the Food Emporium and he got excited.

"Captain Crunch?" He guessed, jumping up and leaping off of the couch.  
For a second Mark felt guilty. That money could have gone for food, or medicine, or heat to shake off the last of winter's chill. But Roger used to be a junkie. Roger used to spend a lot more that twenty dollars on his habit. Roger used to lie and steal to feed his addiction, Mark just got lucky.

He turned to shield the bag from his roommate, but he wasn't quite fast enough and Roger was pretty determined.

"Not Captain Crunch…" Roger muttered peering into the bag. He raised his head. "I thought you were Jewish?"

"I… I… am." Mark stammered and cursed himself. He should have been able to play this off. Snatch the grocery bag away and tell Roger to mind his own damn business.

"So what's this?" Roger wondered, holding up the brightly colored foil egg. "And this? And this?" He held more eggs up, fumbling to hold them.

"Don't drop them!" Mark cried. "They're mine and I need them!"

"But Mark," Roger said slowly, "they're Easter candy."

"They're Cadbury Eggs and they're delicious!" Mark insisted, wrenching the bag from his friend's hand. He pulled two of the eggs away from Roger and attempted to reclaim the third.

"Can I keep it?" Roger asked, pouting slightly. "Please?"

"Fine. You can have one." Roger grinned brilliantly. "But just one. You can only get them once a year!"


End file.
